Mrs T was the daughter of a shopkeeper. All she was espousing and generating was the value of self-reliance and the taking of responsibility for one's own life. Remove that, and you have created the "entitlement generation".
I understand that points sometimes need to be made in an un-nuanced manner, if for no other reason than to avoid too many sub-clauses that confuse things.
There has NEVER been a time where people were self-reliant. There was always a safety net of some form, some backdrop, sometimes formal, sometimes not, some friendly power structure, depending on the social structure of the time. Pendulums swing and mostly overshoot, then come back. This is probably because of societal momentum, not many large entities can turn on a dime. So unions become entrenched and wield too much power. Other times, coal companies kill their employees to save a dime and coerce the health authorities into ignoring the data or even deliberately hide it.
It's easy to feel proud of your achievements when you've slogged your whole life and it's a valid thing to do, but it doesn't mean that everyone else was a lazy ass.